The European Court of Justice has endorsed the orthodox and generally understood position as regards an employer’s consultation duties were mass redundancies are involved. This effectively reverses a controversial EAT decision which required consultation where when 20 or more employees were to be dismissed as redundant - irrespective of where they worked.

The test of whether a whistleblowing disclosure is ‘in the public interest’ is one of belief not of fact - in that a disclosure need not actually be in the public interest as long as the whistleblower reasonably believes it is.

An employee who claimed unfair constructive dismissal based on events before her long-term sick leave had delayed too long before resigning and had, by virtue of her conduct whilst on sick leave, affirmed her contract and thus lost the right to claim.

While the employer breached the employee’s contract by withdrawing his post without investigation or allowing him to respond to allegations against him, the employee’s subsequent stress-induced depressive illness was not reasonably foreseeable such so as to make the employer liable in damages for personal injury.

The dismissal of an employee who took time off work to take his wife to hospital was not automatically unfair as he had not contacted his employer to explain the reason for his absence as soon as reasonably practicable.

An employer did not discriminate by paying only the statutory rate of additional paternity pay to a male employee on additional paternity leave when a female employee on maternity leave would have been entitled to full basic pay. Although the policy was indirectly discriminatory, it was objectively justified by the need to recruit and retain women in a male-dominated workforce.

A court should not rewrite a restrictive covenant which has been poorly drafted to bring it in line with commonsense. Just because something had ‘gone wrong’ with its drafting, a court should not recast the chosen language of the restriction to give effect to what is said to have been the likely commercial intention.

The aftermath of the Brexit referendum gave rise to a chain of racist and xenophobic incidents. The 57% increase in reports of hate crime following the vote reminds us that we must not become complacent in our continued efforts to achieve equality, inclusion and acceptance for all. Ethnicity and colour are among the most uncomfortable subjects for anyone, including those working in diversity and inclusion, to confront. This discomfort, however, should not and cannot allow us to shy away from discussing big subjects that have a profound impact on society at large and our workplaces.

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